Marvelous: The Marvel franchise marches on

11/10/22 7:00PM

Marvel forever

‍The latest Marvel offering, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, could administer a much-needed shot in the arm for the box office business this weekend, as fans flock to watch the sequel following the tragic death of original titular star Chadwick Boseman in 2020.

The film is expected to smash through this year’s domestic opening weekend record, held — unsurprisingly — by another Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which took in a whopping $187m back in May.

‍Hero’s journey

‍Launching in 2008 with Iron Man, the star-studded superhero stable of the MCU has been expanding ever since. Indeed, with each year that passes, Disney’s $4.2bn acquisition of Marvel in 2009 looks better and better, even by the House of Mouse’s high standards.

Since the deal, Marvel have been relentlessly prolific, racking up more than $10bn at the US box office in a meteoric rise to the top. Long-standing classic movie franchises like Star Wars (also now Disney-owned) and the James Bond films now pale in comparison, despite getting a multi-decade headstart on the world of Marvel.

The scariest news for Marvel’s franchise foes? The MCU is only in its 4th ‘phase’ of 6 and, with the company’s ability to endlessly world-build under Disney, there could be many more installments to come in the super series.

Millie Giles

OFF THE WALL

The Michael Jackson biopic has hauled $217 million in its global weekend debut

Over the weekend, “Michael” moonwalked to the biggest-ever opening for a biopic.

GERMANY-USA-MUSIC-CINEMA-CELEBRITIES-JACKSON

Saleah Blancaflor4/23/26

Justin Bieber’s music keeps surging on streaming after Coachella

You better belieb it. After Justin Bieber headlined the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, California, Billboard reports the pop star is experiencing the biggest non-Super Bowl catalog bump this year, with his music tripling in streams just days after his first set on April 11.

Following Bieber’s performance on Weekend 2 at Coachella on April 18 (which included appearances from Billie Eilish and SZA), his streams climbed even higher.

On Monday (April 20), Bieber’s streams reached a new high for the year, amassing 32.4 million official on-demand US streams, according to Luminate, which is a 12% increase from his total the previous Monday (just over 29 million) and a 5% gain from the previous Tuesday (30.9 million), his previous high-water mark for 2026.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Since the Coachella bump, he’s had a total of six days with at least 30 million streams, compared with only four days in all of 2025, when he released his “Swag” album.

Spotify reported that following Bieber’s first Coachella set, the pop star reached No. 1 on Spotify’s Global Top Artist chart, with his catalog surpassing 77 million streams in a single day, which marked his biggest streaming day of the year.

While prediction markets currently show that Bruno Mars is in the lead at 74% for the artist with the most monthly Spotify listeners at the end of April, Bieber could slowly catch up with a week left in the month. The “Baby” singer is currently in second place, with his odds at 27%.

Justin Bieber’s Post-Coachella Streams Aren’t Done Spiking Yet

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Since the Coachella bump, he’s had a total of six days with at least 30 million streams, compared with only four days in all of 2025, when he released his “Swag” album.

Max Knoblauch4/21/26

Xbox cuts price of its Game Pass subscription by 23%, removes new “Call of Duty” games

A Halley’s Comet-level event in the world of subscriptions is occurring at Microsoft: the company announced it will lower the price of its Game Pass Ultimate from $29.99 to $22.99.

The move comes a little over a week after reports revealed an internal memo from new Xbox head Asha Sharma in which the exec told employees that Game Pass has “become too expensive.” Back in October, before Sharma’s tenure began, Xbox hiked its Game Pass subscription by 50%.

With the price drop, Game Pass will also see a major shift: new “Call of Duty” titles will no longer be added to the service at launch, instead joining the library about a year later during the following holiday season. The subscription will still cost a bit more than it did before the popular titles were added in 2024.

According to estimates reported by Bloomberg, the decision to put “Call of Duty” on Game Pass cost Xbox more than $300 million.

Millie Giles

HAPPY CAMPUS

4/20/26

College applications fall if weather is bad during tours, study suggests

New research finds the vibes on the day that prospective students visit a college might affect whether they apply.

Tom Jones

Time’s up?

4/17/26

LIV Golf’s Saudi backers are reportedly pulling out after pumping $5 billion into the tour

The 2026 season will continue “uninterrupted and at full throttle,” LIV’s CEO said.

Marvelous: The Marvel franchise marches on

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Justin Bieber’s music keeps surging on streaming after Coachella

Justin Bieber’s Post-Coachella Streams Aren’t Done Spiking Yet

Xbox cuts price of its Game Pass subscription by 23%, removes new “Call of Duty” games

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